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Industrial Education or Manual Training

MAY BE BEST BEGUN OR ITS FOUNDATION LAID BY THE USE OF

WHITE'S INDUSTRIAL DRAWING,

REVISED.

This popular series, already widely and favorably known, has just been thoroughly and intelligently revised, and now represents the best thought and practice in this important branch. The books contain only such work as is directly educational in its character, and which leads, without waste of time, to such a knowledge of the subject as is essential to every artisan or person employing such. In a word,

WHITE'S INDUSTRIAL DRAWING, REVISED, IS

THE SIMPLEST,

THE MOST PRACTICAL,

THE MOST COMPLETE,

THE MOST EASILY TAUGHT

of any existing system. Beginning with the lowest work for the first year of school life the books are numbered consecutively from No. I upward. There are no cards, exercise books, or manuals, but each book is complete in itself, and to be followed in order in the series.

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Nos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will be ready June 20th; the remaining numbers to follow shortly.

CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED.

Ivison, Blakeman & Co.,

149 Wabash Ave., Chicago, 753 & 755 Broadway N. Y.

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The number of our studies has increased so much, and the demands of all kinds upon the human brain are so much more numerous than they were, that education has become a very much more complicated affair.

About fifty years spent in teaching have enabled me to try many plans, as well as to see others tried, and I propose to give the best advice I can as to the momentous question, "What shall I do with my boy?"

First of all, give him health, for without health he can do nothing. The parent or the teacher that urges the brain of a sick boy is a monster either of ignorance or of evil, and the greater demands now made upon the brain require just so much greater care on our part to keep it in the highest condition.

The laws of health are few and simple. The great difficulty is to get people to follow them.

A sufficient quantity of good, plain food, properly cooked, plenty of fresh air and exercise, and a skin properly cared for by washing and rubbing, are all that is necessary for high health and for a long and useful life, yet there is nothing in which the weakness of poor human nature is more decidedly shown than in our constant overeating and under-exercising, and our suffering in consequence thereof.

If you can send your boy to a school with a gymnasium or playroom attached, do so. If you have the means let him learn boxing and dancing, as well as single stick and fencing, provided he does the last two as much with the left hand as the right, otherwise he will be developed much more on one side than the other.

Beside strengthening and developing the body, these exercises have an excellent moral effect. They entirely prevent all morbid desires or passions, and give a manly tone to ideas and to actions.

Let your boy be also taught, or let him teach himself, those various simple movements of the arms and legs that can best be made in his bedroom at night or in the morning, when his clothing is loose and his limbs are freest. They are called free gymnastics, or (by the Germans) chamber gymnastics.

These will render him independent of all gymnasiums and of all teachers. No matter where he may be he can always insure himself sufficient exercise, and prevent any evil effect of sedentary employment, especially if he will practice the four simple movements called the "set up drill," which are used in all the armies of the world to straighten up the stooping clod-hopper into the erect soldier.

Another mode of exercising is from within, by means of deep breathing, that is, by expanding the chest to its utmost capacity, and holding it so expanded as long as nature will allow.

This exercise is more and more eloquently advocated by some of our physical educationists, and has the very great advantage of en abling us to exercise and expand our chests and lungs without attracting observation, even in a car or in a church.

The young man who increases the capacity of his chest by frequent deep breathing is not only fortifying himself against pneumonia and consumption, but is adding to the power and depth of his voice, so that he can use it more effectually for any purpose that he chooses.

As to fresh air, it has well been said that a man should be as choice of the air he breathes as of the food he eats.

Bad air is a constant poison, while good air is a steady tonic and the best of tonics. Good, red, healthy blood cannot be produced in the lungs when they are filled with the exhalations of many people and unwholesome effluvia from many sources. There is no such thing as fresh air in a large city, and even in a large village, or in your own house, it is often not fresh on account of deficient drainage.

If you are compelled to live in a city, try hard to have your boy get outside of it for, at least, one hour per day. Let his Saturday holiday be devoted as much as possible to this great restorer, and half the blessed Sunday should be given also, if need be, to teach him obedience to the wise laws of his Creator about his body, which is the temple of his soul.

As to the skin, we are told that a full-grown man discharges from his cuticle, in twenty-four hours, from eighteen to twenty ounces (one and one-eighth to one and one-fourth pounds) of solid matter, by insensible perspiration, which is going on constantly. If this be not removed, either by rubbing or washing, or both, the skin is clogged

and its undone work makes an additional burden for the intestines, the kidneys or the lungs.

Supposing that you have done all you can to insure the health of your boy, let us now consider what you can do for his brain education.

This cannot commence too soon. In fact, it commenced at his birth, and is constantly going on. Your duty is to help it and direct it.

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Though home education should continue as long as possible, it is of the greatest importance, of course, before he goes to school.

He has three sources of information-observation, conversation and books. As to the first, take him about with you as much as possible. Enlarge, as much as you can, his field of observation. The more things you give him to compare, the more he will learn, the greater will be his experience in any given time, and the more expanded will be his views. Let him read, or have read to him, the story of Eyes and No Eyes, showing how much more one boy observed than another, although both went over the same ground together; and get him into the habit of giving an account of what he sees, so as to get command of language, as well as to fix the facts more firmly in his head.

As to conversation, answer all his questions promptly, pleasantly, and with sufficient fullness, but do not over-load him with too much information at one time. Follow his lead as much as possible, and stop short when he seems to have enough. Do not allow yourself to be too impatient at the number of his questions, or at his heedlessness and apparent folly.

Try to remember that he is a little savage, born into a high state of civilization, and that all these complicated results that surround him excite his constant wonder, and impel him to ask their causes.

You are accustomed to them. To you they are no longer mysteries; but to him his very clothing is a mystery, and also the house in which he lives. Why should he not ask innumerable questions, and why should they not be pleasantly, clearly and instructively answered? If you have not the time and the patience, try hard to get some one else to do it.

"Robinson Crusoe" is necessarily one of a boy's favorite books, for that world-renowned instructor tells how he made his own pots and pans and kettles, and his own clothing and his own house.

If you can have your boy as eager for knowledge at fifteen as he is

at five, you need not fear about his education, for he will get it in spite of all obstacles.

When he begins his school do not consider your duties as one of the home educators at an end. On the contrary, you should show the greatest possible interest in his studies.

You should ask about each one particularly whenever you can spare the time, and you should make it a special point to compliment him furiously whenever your conscience will allow. Praise is always pleasant, and it is infinitely superior in its effects to blame.

Above all, try to show him from your own daily experiences, or from those of your fellow-men, the pleasure and usefulness of the different kinds of knowledge. A short story, a little personal history, a recent incident, a fresh application of past wisdom, give life and interest to all studies. They link the boy to the man, and show that the little school is really one of the small ante-chambers of the great world without.

If you have no choice, and must send him to a public school, secure him, if you can, a place in that public school where the best teacher is, and find this out by a personal visit to her class, so that you may see her method of instruction. Follow as closely as you can his footsteps in the path of knowledge, and prevent, as far as in you lies, his learning anything that he must afterward unlearn.

Visit his schoolroom frequently, or get some one to do it for you, so that you may see that everything is done for proper ventilation and for cleanliness. Bad companions, also, may, to a certain extent, be avoided by observing those whose seats are nearest, and asking the teacher of the class to change his place if it should seem desirable.

Children sometimes get bad habits at a very early age. I once had a pupil of nine who, when he came to my school, suffered from a bad habit which he must have learned from his companions.

When a teacher notices that a child is carefully looked after by judicious parents she naturally pays more attention to it, and the child thus profits more.

If you have a choice and can afford to send your boy to a private school, then comes the question, which is best for him, a public school, a private school or private teaching?

The arguments in favor of public schools are:

1. That they are more democratic or republican than private schools.

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